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Multiple Sclerosis: A Chronic Autoimmune Disor

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The nervous system is responsible for registering extrinsic and intrinsic factors and communicating them with the entirety of the body. Dendrites acquire these signals from other neurons and then the signal is transmitted through the cell body and down the axon. Graded potentials create an electrical charge that eventually leads to threshold being met and action potentials being generated. These action potentials send the signals down the axon. Signals will sometimes struggle to hike up stream due to threshold recently being met. This absolute refractory state inhibits signals from traveling up the axon unless myelin is present to increase signaling. It takes longer to conduct a signal down an un-myelinated axon because voltage-gated ion channels …show more content…

A disorder where the body is attacking itself is known as an autoimmune disorder. In an autoimmune disorder the body cannot decipher between a pathogen, bacteria, or infection attacking the body and normal healthy body tissue. The majority of autoimmune disorders are long lasting or even permanent. An example of a chronic autoimmune disorder is multiple sclerosis (MS).
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a condition where myelin forms scar tissue and disfigures nerve impulses. This is an example of a deviation from normal physiology found in the nervous system. MS is the result of the immune system atypically attacking myelin and nerve fibers within the central nervous system (CNS). When the myelin and nerve fiber are damaged, it can cause the signal to be disturbed or disfigured. The damaged scar tissue (sclerosis) gives the disease its name. The symptoms of MS can range anywhere from pain and fatigue to tremors and …show more content…

Sadly, there is no cure for multiple sclerosis and no way to completely restore the normal function of the nervous system. Specialists focus on trying to manage relapses in patients with relapsing forms of MS. During remissions, after relapses, the body works to repair areas that have been damaged. Negative feedback works to restore homeostasis in the CNS by releasing oligodendrocytes to start repairing demyelinated axons. Despite hard work by the CNS to restore complete myelination there are still some parts of the axon that remain unlyelinaated. These parts of the axon produce more sodium channels that open during action potentials to allow more sodium ions to flow in and play a crucial role in nerve transmission. When there are more sodium channels it allows MS patients to have remission from a

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